Cardiff boss Malky Mackay brushes off fears of past play-off failure

Malky Mackay is adamant Cardiff will have no hangover from previous Championship play-off heartaches when they take on West Ham in this evening’s semi-final, first leg.

Cardiff’s Ross McCormack is left devastated following the 2010 play-off final loss to Blackpool. (Picture: Action Images)

The Bluebirds lost out to Blackpool in a thrilling Wembley final two seasons ago, before being downed by Reading at the last-four stage last term.But Mackay, who took over last summer, is unconcerned by the past and feels Cardiff’s run to this year’s Carling Cup final shows they can handle pressure.‘That’s in the past, you have to take the individual games on their own merit,’ he said.

‘Last year, losing Craig Bellamy against Reading didn’t help and against Blackpool the year before they lost a striker who had got a lot of goals for them just ten minutes in – Jay Bothroyd.‘That’s the kind of thing you need to go for you to win a final.‘But as far as we’re concerned this is a group that has got to a Carling Cup final and taken a club like Liverpool all the way to penalties. That shows there’s a strength of character here to enable us to handle a two-legged semi-final.’

Sam Allardyce’s West Ham blew a great chance to seal automatic promotion with a poor run of home form (Picture: Getty Images)

Meanwhile, West Ham assistant boss Neil McDonald insists his team are not fearful of being favourites to join Reading and Southampton in the top flight.Sam Allardyce’s right-hand man said: ‘We were favourites at the start of the season to go up, so it was disappointing we didn’t do it automatically.‘But we will take the favourite tag if everyone wants to give it to us. The boys are in really good spirits and we’re ready for the two games against Cardiff.’